Huge demand for herbal medicines at National and Intl. Markets

Mysuru:  Former Joint Secretary in the Department of Health Research, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and  former Head of Forest Force, Kerala Forest Departmnet, Dr. H. Nagesh Prabhu has called upon farmers to take up medicinal plants cultivation to enhance their farm income.

He was speaking at the one- day workshop on ‘Strengthening Forward-Backward Linkages for Sustained Supply of Quality Medicinal Plants to Industry through Profitable Cultivation’, organised by the Department of Botany, University of Mysore, Regional- Cum-Facilitation Centre, Southern Region, National Medicinal Plant Board (NMPB) at Vijnana Bhavan in Manasagangothri in city this morning.

He said medicinal plants can be a good source of income for farmers as there has been a resurgence of interest in traditional and alternative healthcare systems, most of which rely on herbs for medicine. There is a huge demand for medicinal plants which have therapeutic properties and health benefits to people at both National and International Markets, he said and added that medicinal plants are widely used in the production of herbal medicines and other forms of alternative medicine.  

Hence, farmers should take up cultivation of medicinal plants instead of committing suicide due to price crash of farm products or other reasons. Cultivation of herbal plants fetches money and enhances their livelihood, Dr. Nagesh Prabhu opined.

In her inaugural address, former CEO of NMPB and Director of Ayush Karnataka, Meenakshi Negi said, farmers were not coming forward to take up cultivation of medicinal plants due to lack of marketing, promotion and discouragement from the government. She stressed the need to ensure better marketing facility for farmers, besides connecting them with farmers and industries, encouragement from the government to extend the area of medicinal plants cultivation. The archaic forest laws are also preventing them from taking up cultivation of plants in forest areas of the country.     

She said India is home to over 12,000 species of medicinal plants as per the reports of Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. About 70 percent of these plants are found in the tropical forests, spread across the Western and Eastern Ghats.   

Expressing serious concern over depletion of several medicinal plants, she said uncontrolled extraction and collection of large quantities of plant materials, deforestation and land degradation due to increase in human and livestock population, many plant species were threatened with extinction.

Meenakshi Negi said India is the second largest exporter of medicinal plants in the world. It also imports several species of medicinal plants. Country’s share in the world trade is currently comparatively low even though we have a rich tradition of herbal medicine. Hence there is tremendous opportunity waiting to be tapped from this sector.

Stating that there is a huge demand for herbal products  both inside and outside the country, she said the growing interest in traditional herbal medicine will lead to further increase in the demand for medicinal plants and consequent loss of medicinal plant species.  

Over 300 farmers and industry representatives from various districts took part in the workshop.    

Acting Vice-Chancellor of University of Mysore Prof. Aisha M. Sheriff, HoD of Botany Dr. S. Leelavathi, NMPB-New Delhi Assistant Advisor Dr. N. Padmakumar, Regional Deputy Director – NMPB Southern Region, Kerala, Dr. N. Sasidharan and others were present.